Thinking of coming back to AxeFx III. Tell me about Setlists/Songs

G

gberto

Inspired
TL;DR
For those who have been using setlists & songs, how well is it working for you?

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I sold my Axe Fx III a while back and went on a bit of a gear odyssey. I decided I liked the feel and response of the amps in Kemper better, so I went to Kemper for a while, then briefly tried a Quad Cortex, then moved to tube amps for a while, and tried a Helix.

I'm looking at building out a gigging rig for next year and thinking about coming back to Axe Fx III.

Of course I'm interested in hearing the updates to the amp modeling, drive modeling, and all the new effects. But the one feature I just saw that really has me excited and might tip the scales is the setlists & songs feature.

On paper it's exactly what I've been wanting for a long long time: a way to create an organized list of songs and sounds within songs that I can step through during a show.

The type of gigs I play are very structured and use the same structure for several months at a time, so being able to program that in so I only have to use a few footswitches to cycle through the order is very appealing.


So, for those who have been using this feature, how well is it working for you in practice?
 
Works great, I've come to rely on it for one of my bands (a yacht rock tribute), as it helps keep things simple so I can concentrate on making music. I'm also doing some shows with a Deep Purple tribute where I only use a couple of presets with a few scenes each, so the set list feature doesn't add much value.

What I really appreciate is the ability to quickly change footswitch layouts, the ability to color code and label footswitches, and the various ways their functions can be allocated. These are very powerful and well thought out capabilities that I make heavy use of, and they're super beneficial to me.

Best of all, once you tweak sounds to your liking, the tones and feel of the Axe-III are really inspiring, makes me want play for hours. Moving to Fractal is probably the best gear investment I've ever made.
 
allenma said:
Works great, I've come to rely on it for one of my bands (a yacht rock tribute), as it helps keep things simple so I can concentrate on making music. I'm also doing some shows with a Deep Purple tribute where I only use a couple of presets with a few scenes each, so the set list feature doesn't add much value.

What I really appreciate is the ability to quickly change footswitch layouts, the ability to color code and label footswitches, and the various ways their functions can be allocated. These are very powerful and well thought out capabilities that I make heavy use of, and they're super beneficial to me.

Best of all, once you tweak sounds to your liking, the tones and feel of the Axe-III are really inspiring, makes me want play for hours. Moving to Fractal is probably the best gear investment I've ever made.
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Nice, that sounds great. I'm assuming you could do stuff like set a footswitch for a per-preset action and then it would change based on the preset selected and you could dynamically change sounds on the fly within the section?

So I could be on Section 3 of Song ABC and toggle a drive on/off while I'm in that section, then move on to Section 4
 
gberto said:
Nice, that sounds great. I'm assuming you could do stuff like set a footswitch for a per-preset action and then it would change based on the preset selected and you could dynamically change sounds on the fly within the section?

So I could be on Section 3 of Song ABC and toggle a drive on/off while I'm in that section, then move on to Section 4
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Yes, that's doable.

I use the setlist/songs feature for every gig. IMO the only shortcoming I've found is that I can't save any more than 4 sets of material, and each set is limited to 32 songs. If even a few more song slots were available per set, I could save a whole show as a single set, but I understand the current offering is all there's room for hardware-wise. (The MFC-101 and Axe-Fx II could save 10 shows worth of songs, which was a handy feature for me.) That said, it's pretty easy to export setlists to my computer and reload them into the Axe-Fx if I need to repeat a show.
 
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TG3K said:
Yes, that's doable.

I use the setlist/songs feature for every gig. IMO the only shortcoming I've found is that I can't save any more than 4 sets of material, and each set is limited to 32 songs. If even a few more song slots were available per set, I could save a whole show as a single set, but I understand the current offering is all there's room for hardware-wise. (The MFC-101 and Axe-Fx II could save 10 shows worth of songs, which was a handy feature for me.) That said, it's pretty easy to export setlists to my computer and reload them into the Axe-Fx if I need to repeat a show.
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It would definitely be nice to have less limitation for number of sets. I can also see a use for myself in having many more than just 6 Sections per song. It would be cool to have enough that I could step through the entire song with just one footswitch.

joeysmac said:
I don't find it useful without the ability to save the tempo along with the songs. It's on the roadmap for future firmware releases but not sure when.
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Ah, yeah I can see how that would be really useful!

ConstantM said:
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Haha, yeah it was probably a mistake.
 
Always fun to stretch your legs and try new gear. Do you remember what FW was installed when you decided you liked the Kemper response more? Also, did you like the Kemper better than the Quad Cortex as well?
 
It really makes a pro gig smooth and easy. I helped to set it up for two tours recently: one was "Progject" and the other is a very big country act. Both players thought it was perfect for the way their setlist could vary a little bit each night -- or not!
I can answer your questions more directly and specifically if you have any.
 
I love it and use it for my band's shows. Like others I'd love to have more space in terms of songs per set - sometimes I have to use 2 sets for a show and switch between sets during the show. But that's a minor thing compared to the overall benefit of the song/set functionality.
 
J.C said:
Always fun to stretch your legs and try new gear. Do you remember what FW was installed when you decided you liked the Kemper response more? Also, did you like the Kemper better than the Quad Cortex as well?
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I can't remember the number, but it was the first one with Cygnus

Admin M@ said:
It really makes a pro gig smooth and easy. I helped to set it up for two tours recently: one was "Progject" and the other is a very big country act. Both players thought it was perfect for the way their setlist could vary a little bit each night -- or not!
I can answer your questions more directly and specifically if you have any.
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Thanks! I really appreciate it.
 
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